Mark Siegel at 23rd Street acquired, in a three-book deal, world rights to Overrated by Gene Luen Yang (pictured l.), with art by Jacob Perez, from Judy Hansen at Hansen Literary Management. The graphic novel kicks off a new series set in mid-aughts Los Angeles and centered on P-Flo, the city’s most popular hip-hop dancer, who finds himself in the crosshairs of a group of assassins that hunts celebrities they judge as undeserving of fame, the publisher said. The first book is slated to be published in 2027. (photo: Albert Law)

Diana Pho at Erewhon acquired world rights, in a two-book deal, to Hard Times by Emmy-winning performer Wayne Brady and Afrofuturist author Maurice Broaddus. Brady was represented by Anthony Mattero at CAA and Thomas Hoberman, while Bridget Smith at JABberwocky represented Broaddus. The “time-bending sci-fi thriller,” per the publisher, follows “an estranged father and son who must bridge their turbulent history while trying to escape a for-profit prison that exists outside of time.” An early 2027 release is set, with a sequel planned for 2028.

Elizabeth Beier at St. Martin’s acquired North American rights to Robinne Lee’s Crash into Me from Richard Pine at InkWell Management. Lee’s follow-up to her debut novel, The Idea of You, follows Cecilia Chen, an artist whose move to Los Angeles leads to her serendipitous reunion with an enigmatic model whom she hasn’t seen in 20 years, leading to an “explosive physical and emotional entanglement” that upends Cecilia’s life and marriage. Publication is set for July 2026.

Seema Mahanian at Viking’s Pamela Dorman imprint acquired North American rights to Naima Coster’s What’s Mine and Yours from Kristyn Keene Benton at CAA. The novel, set in Brooklyn and the South of France, is about two best friends who “move closer to each other to raise their daughters together, only to find that a tragic incident from their past continues to haunt their present, while class differences push them further apart,” according to the publisher. Release is planned for summer 2026.

Helen Thomaides at Hogarth preempted world English rights to Nicoletta Verna’s Days of Glass from Emanuele Malpezzi of Italy’s Piergiorgio Nicolazzini Literary Agency, on behalf of United Stories Agency. Verna’s English-language debut chronicles, per the publisher, “two women who come of age in Northern Italy against the backdrop of the rise of fascism and the onset of World War II, their lives intersecting in a dangerous Resistance mission to assassinate a high-ranking fascist commander.” Publication is scheduled for fall 2027.

In Brief

  • John Morgan at Grand Central preempted Mark D. Freeman’s Ravenous, a debut eco-horror thriller about a wildlife specialist who must protect a small Canadian town beset by polar bears, from Jennifer Weltz at Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency, for an early 2027 release.

  • Jeff Shotts at Graywolf picked up world rights, unagented, to Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Tracy K. Smith’s collection The Forest, to publish in March 2027.

  • Ryan Doherty at Celadon bought North American rights, at auction, to organizational psychologist and MIT Sloan senior lecturer Kate W. Isaacs’s Gut Feel: The New Science of Intuition from Max Edwards at Apple Tree Literary, for a winter 2028 publication.

  • Judith Curr at HarperOne acquired North American rights to Donna Hay’s Sunshine, Lemons and Salt, “a celebration of modern coastal home cooking,”from Airlie Lawson at Harper-Collins Australia, with publication planned for April 2026. Elizabeth Mitchell will edit.

  • Dina Davis at Hanover Square preempted world rights, excluding Italian and Dutch, to Sophie Zylstra’s Margot: The Sister of Anne Frank from Paul Sebes at Sebes & Bisseling. A winter 2028 release is set.